Virgin Media has been fined £28m for repeatedly preventing customers from cancelling contracts, Ofcom said.
It said millions of phone calls from customers were “likely mishandled” over nearly a three-year period which prevented or delayed customers from switching to a better deal.
The communications regulator said it found “deliberate call-dropping” tactics, as well as customers being put on hold “for no reason”.
The penalty was reduced by 30% given Virgin Media admitted its failing and agreed to settle the case, Ofcom added. Virgin Media apologised to “the small proportion who experienced an issue when contacting us to agree a new deal or cancel their service in the past”.
Ofcom said the fine was the largest it had issued under its consumer protection rules, and its third largest ever in general.
Its largest ever fine of £50m was issued to Royal Mail in 2018 for breaking competition law, and its second biggest fine of £42m was for BT in 2017.
Ofcom said its Virgin Media investigation found millions of customer calls between 1 January 2022 and 11 September 2024 were likely to have been mishandled by call agents “in order to delay or prevent customers from cancelling and switching to a competitor”.
It uncovered tactics including: excessive and unnecessary call transfers, deliberately hanging up calls, repeated attempts to pressure customers to stay, and unnecessarily and repeatedly keeping customers on hold.
Ofcom said Virgin’s commission scheme “effectively encouraged” and financially rewarded call centre agents for “behaving in this way”.
Ofcom said its rules “are clear that the conditions or procedures telecoms providers have in place must not act as a disincentive for customers who wish to cancel their contract” – and that Virgin’s failings likely acted as a disincentive for customers in million of calls.
Natalie Black, Ofcom’s group director for infrastructure and connectivity, told the BBC’s Today programme that Virgin Media’s actions were “pretty shocking” and showed “poor behaviour”.
“Right at the beginning of this problem, a number of years ago in 2022, we tried to resolve this informally. There wasn’t the will to do that,” she said.
She added in a statement: “The facts are clear. Virgin Media made it harder for customers to cancel their contracts and then did not fully cooperate with our investigation.
“As a result, we are levelling our largest ever fine under our consumer protection rules for direct harm to consumers.”
She added: “Today, we are sending a clear message that any provider who wilfully acts against the interests of their customers will pay a heavy price.”
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